Rhema Lights

A family tradition ever since we moved to Tulsa.

Christmas' gift

"Christmas is a gift of love wrapped in human flesh

and tied securely with the strong promises of God.

It is more than words can tell,

for it is a matter for the heart to receive,

believe and understand."

[Unknown]

Short Vacation?

J and I just arrived back from a four day trip without any kiddos. I wish I could call it a vacation but we spent our time in a class like setting from 8am-5pm two of the days and from 8am-12pm the next day and the rest of our time was spent flying on planes and sitting in airports. Wait a second. I won't lie. We had a very nice king bed suite at Holiday Inn Express that had a jacuzzi tub. There was a little relaxation involved. The bed was super comfy and there as no worry of being interrupted by a child needing something. We went out to eat- by ourselves. Watch t.v.- by ourselves. Got ready in the morning- by ourselves. No one needed me to cook their food or pick out clothes for them in the morning. It was nice. Breakfast was served to us in the morning, Continental style. Which means it was prepared by someone else and all I had to do was pick and choose what I wanted to eat and I was able to sit for as long as I wanted and eat my hot breakfast in peace. Nice. Really nice.

I will blog more about the Church Multiplication Boot Camp later. There is a lot to blog about. I am just glad now that I am home with my family. My loving children are a blessing. Even though they wake me up when I want to sleep in. Ask me for more breakfast before I've finished mine and make it 100 times more difficult to get anywhere on time. I miss them when I'm gone. I miss their craziness. I miss their loudness. I miss their unending needs.

I'm happy to be together again.

Mr. No

Little N is from this point on referred to as Mr. No. Everything you ask him the answer is "No". He might turn your body towards the fridge and say "cup! cup!"(meaning that he wants milk in his cup) and you might in turn ask him "would you like some milk?" His answer "No" But if you then walk away without giving him his beloved cup full of milk he will break out in a frantic "CUP! CUP! CUUUUP!"

He might be pointing at the bananas and you ask him "Would you like a banana?" and he says "No. Blyna(his word for banana)" You know he wants one so you ask again. He says "No. Blyna" You say "Say Yes" and he says "No"

"Are you N?" NO

"Is your sister M?" NO

"Am I your Mommy?" NO

"Are you hungry?" NO
"Are you poopy?" NO

"Can you say NO" NO

At least I win one.

Oh My L

My wonderful middle child will not attend her tumbling class. For the third week in a row we have dressed for class and she will not go. M goes. L does not. I don't understand why she won't. M is in the class with her. L loves all the new tumbling "moves" that they do. And I don't know what to do. It is frustrating that we are paying for the class and she refuses to go. I would love to force her to attend but then again I have never been one to make my children do things that they really don't have to do. I would rather un-enroll her from the class and just have M attend. But I know as soon as I get that process finished she will decide she wants to go. Oh how frustrating parenting can be. What to do? Her teacher told me the other week that she has had the same thing happen with other children sitting out for three class periods so I guess L is just normal?

Mario Kart Wii

I've been a video game fanatic the past week. Last night I stayed up until midnight trying to unlock new things. Yes, yes, I know that now I cannot complain about not having enough time to quilt or scrapbook because somehow I have enough time to play Mario Kart Wii. One thing I do know for sure is that I would be able to play much better if little N would #1. Not try to clean my face with a wipe while I am playing and #2 Not play with my hair while I'm playing He is such a sweet little boy. Is sweet the right word?

One-Lane Bridge

Last month during our vacation in Eureka Springs, Arkansas we took a random drive out of the village and came across this beautiful one-lane bridge in the village of Beaver. It is wooden and quite long which made it even more scary to drive across but magnificently beautiful. On our way back to Tulsa we drove out of our way to cross it again.

Whew!

Crazy. That is the word that explains what I went through tonight. Went into work at 4pm and right away had 2 tables, then a couple more, then a couple more until someone came on at 5:30pm. I thought I was going crazy but somehow I made it through. I don't think I stopped until 6:30. I only had one table for awhile and then we got slammed again. I had a couple rounds of having 4-5 tables all going down at the same time then finally it was all over. $833 in sales tonight. Tipped out $26 to my bussers( SOO glad we had two on tonight, they are so helpful). Brought home $157 tonight, 7 hours of work. Can't beat that.

Before Work Hugs and Kisses

L, my four year old daughter, started this routine with me about a month ago. As I would be leaving for work she would run to meet me at the door and give me a quick hug and kiss goodbye. M soon joined in on the fun. Even if they were laying down "napping" they would run quickly out of their bedrooms when they heard me opening the door to leave and give me a hug and kiss. The hugs and kisses have now escalated to whenever they see me dressed in my uniform, almost ready to leave, they will each hug and kiss me and then hug and kiss me as I'm going out the door. Sometimes they will even yell out their bedroom window "goodbye, mom" several times, each I echo with a "goodbye, girls". The last time I left for work I'm surprised I actually made it out the door. Each girls had to have given me at least five or six hugs and kisses, WOW! that was exhausting.

Halloween and Harvest Parties

My beautiful girls in their butterfly outfits.

We went to a Harvest Party on Friday. We had told the girls on Thursday that we were going to go the next day and that they were going to wear their costumes(the costumes had been put in my closet so that the wings would be less likely to be broken before Halloween) I woke up in the morning and noticed my closet door open. I didn't think much of it other than that it was weird that anyone would be going into my closet. I went into the hallway and looked towards the living room and two little girls shouted "Trick or Treat" decked out in all their costume apparel. "HAHA" I really wanted to laugh. But we had told the girls that they could not get into the closet to get their costumes and there was no way I was letting them spend all day in their costumes. So I nicely told them that they had to put their costumes back, it was not time yet. They told me that they had crawled on the floor into my room, into my closet to get the costumes out so that I would not see them. Sneaky children. Sneaky Sneaky children. You tricked me. This was a trick not a treat.

So later in the day, more around the time of the Harvest party. We had the girls all dressed up in their butterfly costumes and little N in his Tiny Ninja costume. So cute! We took some pictures then went to pick up our friend IZ who was also dressed like a Ninja. So we had two Ninja boys and two Butterfly girls.